Wireless communication networks are widely deployed to provide various communication services such as telephony, video, data, messaging, broadcasts, and so on. Such networks, which are usually multiple access networks, support communications for multiple users by sharing the available network resources. One example of such a network is the UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN). The UTRAN is the radio access network (RAN) defined as a part of the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), a third generation (3G) mobile phone technology supported by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). UMTS, which is the successor to Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) technologies, currently supports various air interface standards, such as Wideband-Code Division Multiple Access (W-CDMA), Time Division-Code Division Multiple Access (TD-CDMA), and Time Division-Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access (TD-SCDMA). UMTS also supports enhanced 3G data communications protocols, such as High Speed Packet Access (HSPA), which provides higher data transfer speeds and capacity to associated UMTS networks.
In any wireless communications technology, power consumption at the mobile wireless device is an important issue for which substantial effort continues to be placed. Many conventional wireless communications technologies utilize discontinuous reception (DRX), which may alternately be referred to as a slotted mode, to save power.
In a DRX mode, a device's varies power usage. For example, a device's receiver is generally turned off to save power and turned on during predetermined periods of time when it is known that messages directed to the device may be received. In some examples the turning on and off of the receiver (the DRX cycle) may be periodic, while other examples may utilize other nonperiodic timing between on-times. On some wireless channels, such as a paging channel, the network may repeat some information across several DRX cycles to maximize the probability that a receiving device receives that information and can accordingly act on it.
As demand for mobile broadband access continues to increase, research and development continue to advance UMTS technologies not only to meet the growing demand for mobile broadband access, but to advance and enhance the user experience with mobile communications.